What’s going on with the Raiders’ roster turnover? It’s not a purge, but it’s necessary

Reggie McKenzie doesn’t seem like a man who would commission, execute or enjoy a purge, now does he?

The Raiders general manager speaks softly and almost always genially—I don’t think I’ve ever seen McKenzie in anything close to a foul or frantic mood.

The Raiders won for the first time in the McKenzie Era last Sunday, which made them 1-2 and him happy.

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They’re going for two in a row Sunday in Denver against the Broncos, which would make McKenzie ecstatic.

But when you go through the list of transactions since McKenzie took over the Raiders last winter, there does seem to be a stark theme:

If you’re a player the Raiders acquired before McKenzie’s arrival, you’d better be producing… or else you’ll be an ex-Raider fast.

That goes even if you’re a relatively high-round draft pick of recent vintage, and judging by the recent releases of offensive lineman Joseph Barksdale and cornerback DeMarcus Van Dyke (both third-rounders last year), it might be especially so for those high-round/low-production guys.

So are you in the middle of a roster-wide purging, Reggie?

“No,” McKenzie told me after a practice a few days ago, “no purge at all. It really wasn’t.”

But McKenzie also wasn’t disputing that he and coach Dennis Allen knew they had to make a lot of changes, and will continue to contemplate any and all changes on a 24/7 basis.

There is no built-in protection for Al Davis’ former favored speed-size types; there are no hold-over scholarships for a team that hasn’t gotten to the playoffs in a decade.

“I did expect to try to maneuver the bottom portion of the roster, yes,” McKenzie said of his flurry of in-season moves.

“But as much? I didn’t expect to lose both my starting corners (free-agent signees Shawntae Spencer and Ron Bartell) right off the bat or my starting tackle (Khalif Barnes)…

“But you’ve got to account for stuff like that. I tried to envision trying to upgrade continuously, not just Weeks 1 through 4, but even Week 17, if we can help.

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“Sometimes the opportunities just don’t present themselves, either, if it’s not the right guy. If the right guy’s out there, we’ll look into it and I’ll talk to my head coach and say, ‘Hey, what about this?’”

Just a brief summary:

* McKenzie has cut recent draft picks, from Barksdale a few days ago to Van Dyke earlier this season;

* McKenzie didn’t retain several veteran free-agents that were key parts of the old roster (including linebacker Kamerion Wimbley and running back Michael Bush);

* And McKenzie said bye-bye to several of Al’s favorites (cornerback Stanford Routt, offensive lineman Bruce Campbell, and receiver Louis Murphy, among others).

“I didn’t go into it just to release the all guys who were here,” McKenzie said. “We just try to look at production.

“I had a whole offseason, whole preseason and all the games and training camp to evaluate most of those guys. You know, as far as those guys are concerned, I felt like we needed to upgrade, that’s all.”

But McKenzie hasn’t wiped away all of the stalwarts of the previous regime.

First, that would be impossible in such a short time; and secondly, there are some holdover young players to build around, including Darren McFadden, Denarius Moore, Jared Veldheer, Stefan Wisniewski, Rolando McClain, Matt Shaughnessy and Michael Huff.

From there, McKenzie has brought in some veterans who have contributed immediately, most notably linebacker Philip Wheeler, probably the defense’s best player so far.

And the Raiders just added veteran defensive end Andre Carter last week.

“As long as Reggie and I are here we’re going to continue trying to build the best roster we can build,” Dennis Allen said, “and we’ll look at any moves we have to make to do that.”

Meanwhile, a few of McKenzie’s first class of draft choices this year have already made contributions, also led by a linebacker: fourth-round pick Miles Burris.

This is absolutely not a finished roster—it’s not deep, it lacks playmakers; we’ve seen how slow they can look already in the first few weeks.

If McKenzie plays is exactly right, this roster is still probably two years away from the kind of roster McKenzie left in Green Bay.

But there was no way to move the Raiders forward, unless McKenzie and Allen were prepared to do some radical roster shifting.

They didn’t go into this planning a purge. But if outsiders believe it looks like one, they’re OK with that, too, as long as the Raiders are better than they used to be, or at least heading that way.

I have been a Raider fan since 1967,follow them to the end. Love them to death, but frankly speaking Al was the best. He could see talent and ucher it to the Raiders,but the
Time caught up to him. Not until last year or the 2011 -Draft was that evident, that Al was losing its Touch.
The Torch been passed out to a new managament that will not putup with less than a Commitment to Excellence!
No longer will Raider.management open Checkbooks for bad player which are lazy and under achivers.Reggie is the new Massiah, he is constantly watching his monitors and
Lots of film in the room .He is checking plays and each
player performance and he wants the best for the Black
and Silver. Now its the best time we had in 10 years of bad luck,finally “Chucky’s Curse ” is coming to an end!

http://columnnflraiders/talkingpoint oscar moran

After Al, this is a blessing sent by him to soon lead us to the promise land. “SUPERBOWL”Although it looks now we are walking backward ,and blind folded, we wil see the light at the end of the tunnel. We can only hope for the best ,knowing he is bringing new tools to fix a big leak.
One can only have praise for a man that has a heart, and is guiding this organization in the right track. So will welcome those writers and blogers who like KAWAKAMI
Relay some of our messeges to our Gen. Manager-Reggie.
Tell him we support him and his staff, and hope he continue shuffling the players until he can find the Best of the Gladiators.

http://columnnflraiders/talkingpoint oscar moran

Soon The Black and Silver will shine again, and the shine will glare to the rest of the NFL. No more will the team be disrespected and no more bad penelties. A new system is being installed and patience is needed. When it gets done it will be payup time ,and we will not take prisoners!

mlbfan2012

How do the A’s get ignored on this blog?

you did A’s related articles on here back on sept 2nd and sept 5th. SInce then you did an article about the san jose and territorial rights drama…nothing since

seems like A’s are getting more national media attention than from local media

Dutch

Yeah, what is up Tim? The A’s are playing out of their minds and you completely ignore whats going on.

Brad Lundblad

@ Oscar: What kool aid are you drinking? What do you see that I’m not? Coming into
this season since 1980, the Raiders are 6 games under.500. Hardly a commitment to excellence. Gruden, the best coach they had was run out of town because he had become the face of the franchise. Al had run this franchise into the ground. Then there were the busted draft picks led by Russell. They could have had Calvin Johnson that year. Passed on Larry Fitzgerald too. Who do they have at that position on their roster better than those two? I could go on & on about the bad picks but whats the point. Back in their glory days, Al had Ron Wolf & others in the front office he could lean on to build the roster. Wolf’s resume speaks for itself. Also it was a different game & scouting wasn’t what it its today. It was easier to find hidden gems back then. Left on his own Al didn’t do so well. The reality is the Raiders have had about 16 years of dominant football in their history. From about 1967-1983. Most of the other seasons have not been to stellar. The facts speak for themselves.

2012 run

lol the Raiders have been drafting horribly for as long as i can remember so I agree with the above. Yeah we might have hit on one or two there but it’s still a horrible percentage, reference TIM K’s other blog post comparing to Niner drafts. And this is without all the ill-advised free agent pickups.

Ant

Al’s drafts were fun, but terrible. I was big on Brett Favre, we drafted Marinovich. I was big on Cutler, we took Huff, who is average at best and/or should have made a corner as a rookie like Asomugha, they have similar body types. Art Shell is one of my favorite Raiders of all-time, but not even close to HC material. Sean Payton wouldn’t even coach us and look what he did with the Saints. Al’s vision was correct, his judgment all too human.